Legal Regulation of Investment Activities in Belarus. Benefits and Preferences.

Belarus has created an
effective legal framework for the investment business underpinned by
international treaties and the national legislation.

The Republic of Belarus is a party to the Investor Rights Convention (28
March 1997), Investment Co-operation Agreement (24 December 1993); in 1992
Belarus joined the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between
States and Nationals of Other States (18 March 1965) and the Convention
Establishing the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (11 October 1985,
Seoul).

In addition, Belarus is a
party to a number of bilateral and multilateral agreements offering the
most-favored-investor treatment and (or) introducing a set of national
investment rules that secure investors’ rights at the international level.
Today Belarus is a party to nearly 50 treaties on the promotion and mutual
protection of investment; these treaties offer additional safety guarantees for
investments from the European Union, the CIS member states, countries of Asia,
Latin America and others.

At the national level, the
investment practices are regulated by The Law of the Republic of Belarus “On
Investments”. The purpose of this document is to encourage investment
activities in the country and provide legal safeguards for investors.

The State provides an investor with the following guarantees:

the right to
private property and other proprietary and non-proprietary rights;

the equality of
rights and the equal nondiscriminatory protection of the rights and legitimate
interests of an investor;

the stability of
the rights to perform investment activities and terminate them;

the right to an
independent choice of action and the performance of actions related to the
ownership, use and disposal of the objects and results of investment
activity, including independent disposal of the revenues (profits) and free
transfer of profits abroad;

compensation of
the market value of the invested property and recovery of other loss
suffered by an investor as a result of nationalization or requisition allowed only
in exceptional cases;

The recovery of the losses and
the damage caused to
an investor as a result of the actions (or lack thereof) of government officials.

In addition to securing investor’s rights, the State has created a system of
incentives to encourage investment activity in the country.